210 



Java from the plains up to an altitude of + 1500 m.; it thrives as 

 well in regions where the east-monsoon is very dry as where it is 

 very feeble- It grows in primeval and in secondary forests and in 

 low jungles, often in ravines and on water-sides, but never in saline 

 soils. The rather large figs are greedily eaten by monkeys, bats and 

 birds, who most probably contribute to the dispersal of the very 

 small drupes. 



No. 4, Radermachera g/anJulosa Miq., is much less wide-spread. 

 It occurs from West- to East-Java, from the plains up to 700 m. but 

 only in rather fertile and humid soils, especially in dense forests, 

 generally in scattered specimens. The reproduction is effected by the 

 long-winged seeds. 



No. 11, Villebrunea rubescens ft/., is a shrub or small tree, 3 8 m. 

 high, spread throughout Java from the plains up to an altitude of 

 1600 m. but only in regions where the east-monsoon is rather feeble. 

 It grows by preference in well-shaded localities, in primeval and in 

 secondary forests, often in ravines. It reproduces itself by its juicy 

 white fruits. 



All these species may have grown in the former woods of 

 Krakatao. Whether this has been really the case, whether they have 

 survived the eruption or have been introduced after it, no one can tell. 



Of the epiphytes growing everywhere only a single one is ment- 

 ioned, Asp/enium nidus L., a well-known ,,nest-fern", common through- 

 out Java in well-shadowed localities from the plains up to + 2000 m. 

 above sea-level, especially above 250 m., but only in regions 

 where the east-monsoon is not very strong. Its frequent occurrence 

 in the lower part of Krakatao proves that there, as a rule, rather 

 much rain falls in the east-monsoon. The silence preserved about the 

 other epiphytes is quite out of place in a study on the development 

 of the new flora. It would be of interest to compare the epiphytical 

 vegetation of the lower parts of Krakatao with that of the higher 

 parts. Now this is impossible. The number of species found on this 

 trip is stated, but the species themselves are not recorded and 

 oecological data are almost entirely lacking. In the lower regions 

 of Krakatao epiphytes were in 1919 much more common than in 

 1908 or more scientifically spoken, epiphytes were more common 

 in an old secondary forest than in a young one. This is in Java a fact 

 of common occurrence and needs not to be wondered at. 



As to fungi, Ernst found his 2 specimens on a single dead 

 tree lying on the sunny beach. Mr. Docters van Leeuwen, 



